News – Sports – Information for Mason County, Washington

Registration Open for Winter 2016 Olympic College Shelton Community Education

Registration is now open for Winter 2016 Olympic College Shelton Community Education. The campus is offering several classes on writing, cooking, welding, flagging and computers.

Anyone Can Write

Anyone Can Write is an easy, friendly, non-graded class for writers and would-be writers. Participants are encouraged to work on projects of their choice, and while there are assignments each week, most are designed to accommodate the interests of a widely differing group of participants. The class meets for two hours in seven Thursday-evening sessions January 28-March 10.

Instructor Carolyn Maddux has led the Anyone Can Write sessions in Shelton since 1990. A journalist, poet and columnist, she co-wrote “Nita’s Cooking” with local restauranteur Nita Bariekman and wrote “CARE: a Hospital for Mason County” on contract for the Mason General Hospital Commission. She has recently undertaken her first fiction project, a murder mystery set on Santa Catalina Island. “It’s a beach read,” she commented. “I thought it would be a piece of cake after writing nonfiction, but it’s taken far more research. At least Catalina is an enchanting place to do that.”

Maddux worked for 24 years as a reporter for legendary editor Henry Gay at the Shelton-Mason County Journal, where she variously covered county and city government, the courts-and-cops beat and the managing editor’s desk.

She is a member of the Olympia Poetry Network, has taught Paul Gillie Memorial Workshops, and has served as poet-in-residence for River of Words workshops for Educational Service District 113. Her books of poetry, “Remembering Water” and “Voluntary on a Flight of Angels” were published by Bellowing Ark Press and Hypatia-in-the-Woods Press, respectively.

Maddux was co-convenor of Write in the Woods, an annual writers’ conference at Olympic College Shelton, from 1999 to 2010.

Maddux serves on the board of Hypatia-in-the-Woods, a small nonprofit that offers residencies to women in the arts, academia and entrepreneurship.

The Winter Quarter class theme for Anyone Can Write is The Writer’s Voice. “We will look at the various ways voice is used. Style, person, point of view, and word choice are all components of voice. We’ll look at examples of voice, ranging from storytelling from a personal perspective to persuasion in essay form,” Maddux said. “Each quarter,” Maddux says, “there is an interesting mix of writers in Anyone Can Write. While we have course material, handouts and assignments and in-class exercises, the most valuable aspect of the class is spending two hours a week in the company of other writers, learning from each other and sharing the energy that happens in the writerly exchange of ideas.”

Cooking Around the World with Kern

Cook and eat cuisine from around the world with Kern Dolby.

All segments
feature food from different countries, as well as cooking tips, recipes and a tasting of each item.

After a long culinary career at Steven’s Fine Dining, along with positions held locally with the Robin Hood and Alderbrook restaurants, Kern is now serving gourmet street food in his new food truck – Kern’s Kitchen. Recently voted “BEST CHEF” in Mason County, Kern’s expertise is sure to delight.

Create Your Own Welded Project

Have you admired welded art in stores, but then you look at the expensive price tags? Well, now you can use the skills you learned in “Discover Welding” and learn new techniques. Use your imagination or duplicate something you have seen to create your own welded art project. (project must be pre-approved by instructor). Provide your own project supplies and receive instruction on the type of welding to create the project of your choice.

Italian Cooking with Christine

Christine Ciancetta has been cooking since grade school, learning from her upstate New York Italian family. There, she studied with a local French pastry chef and considers her own education in Italian cuisine to be a lifelong exploration. In the best Italian cooking, simple means that you can taste each ingredient and that each ingredient is vital to the success of the dish. To that end, she keeps a garden that produces many ingredients, especially herbs, year round. Ultimately, Christine’s teaching is a reflection of an Italian ideal — that cooking needs to be better integrated into our lives, and that cooking and enjoying food should be a social event filled with family, friends and time to enjoy it all.

Computer Innovations

Are you challenged by working with social media applications? Come and learn skills on how to use some of the popular sites out there: Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, YouTube and the Cloud. Have fun in a comfortable learning environment, meet some new people, and learn how to use your computer tools!